CraigM
3042
I mean, yeah, it is a reasonable platform, and one I’ve advocated before. Treat it like a utility, which it is.
And the net neutrailty ruling is just more proof of how we need to get money out of politics. The whole thing was obscene, and absolute proof the GOP gives zero fucks about the good of the country.
I don’t see how a successful intelligent woman could lose in a race with a man by observing how much of an asshole he is. That probably never happens.
You guys remember the Virginia delegate race that eventually came down to picking a name out of a bowl? The race that decided whether the House of Delegates would remain narrowly Republican of flip to the Democrats? That race?
Yeah, well…
No no evidence malfeasance here, just a fairly routine mix-up where election officials incorrectly assigned 26 people to one district rather than another. It just so happens that the 26 were mostly African-American who presumably voted for the Democrat… and if they had been voting in the correct place they almost certainly would have swung the race, and thus the statehouse, for the Democrats.
rowe33
3045
What a goof! Oh well, I’m sure we’ll do better next time!
An insightful critique on the right wing media outrage machine and refutes the entire Democrats don’t respect trump voters" that pundits so like to prattle on about.
In the world Republicans have constructed, a Democrat who wants to give you health care and a higher wage is disrespectful, while a Republican who opposes those things but engages in a vigorous round of campaign race-baiting is respectful. The person who’s holding you back isn’t the politician who just voted to give a trillion-dollar tax break to the wealthy and corporations, it’s an East Coast college professor who said something condescending on Twitter.
So what are Democrats to do? The answer is simple: This is a game they cannot win, so they have to stop playing. Know at the outset that no matter what you say or do, Republicans will cry that you’re disrespecting good heartland voters. There is no bit of PR razzle-dazzle that will stop them. Remember that white Republicans are not going to vote for you anyway, and their votes are no more valuable or virtuous than the votes of any other American. Don’t try to come up with photo ops showing you genuflecting before the totems of the white working class, because that won’t work. Advocate for what you believe in, and explain why it actually helps people.
Finally — and this is critical — never stop telling voters how Republicans are screwing them over. The two successful Democratic presidents of recent years were both called liberal elitists, and they countered by relentlessly hammering the GOP over its advocacy for the wealthy. And it worked.
Good article. But Dems are addicted to acting outraged about every little thing like a 5 minute sugar high.
Dems are going to get full-blown diabetes at this rate.
The Democratic establishment is never going to stop chasing Republican voters at the expense of their own base. At least partly because they take the same money Republicans do, just from slightly different sources.
You can’t effectively hammer Republicans on policies that hurt most of the country when you support some of the same policies.
There’s truth in that donor money comment, but I don’t think it plays into a lot of the issues that get discussed. Abortion, immigration, high end income tax…the battle lines are drawn on those and the vast majority of voters on both sides are locked in.
I think that most voting battles these days are won or lost on turnout, and/or in the district drawing stage. Issues may get some press, but I doubt they’re changing many minds. Regardless of who is funding the campaigns.
First of all, HOW DARE YOU!?!
Calm down! Here, have a seat before you keel over. ;)
Anyway, what do people like Trump, Rush Limbaugh and Alex Jones (three lunatics chosen at random, honest) hate the very most? Being ignored!
There goes the point of the article flying over some heads. Whee!
The point of the article is that Democrats shouldn’t bother. How is that different?
If Tomasky’s take on this event by the Center for American Progress is accurate, the Democratic candidates seem to be taking to heart the criticism about not standing for anything besides “not Trump.” Of course, talking positive takes on the issues in front of a bunch of other liberals at an “ideas festival” and getting your message across to the public at large are two very different things.
Except that’s not what’s been happening - that’s just beltway pundits spinning their favorite narrative. Few if any of the special elections have been “about trump.” (Besides, there is nothing wrong for standing up for sanity and accountability in government.)
Sure, but the “Democrats stand for nothing” argument has been brought up here more than once. Figured it was worth putting forward some evidence to the contrary.
Greg Sargent is my new recently discovered liberal hero. I read his Plum Line column everyday now.
Yeah, I’ve heard a bazillion Democrats pitching themselves recently, and there are only a small handful that go for an all-out anti-Trump platform (as in “vote for me because I’ll stand up to Trump”). Of those, most of them have focused on changing something that Trump did, not Trump himself. For instance, one guy I really liked was sorta running against Trump… but really his platform was about thwarting the Russians, of which Trump was a symptom.
Mostly what I see are the Democrat candidates running against the Republican candidates… and tying THEM to Trump.
Barbara Comstock, the likely-doomed GOP incumbent here has been running ads where she mentions voting to lower peoples taxes, but she never once mentions Trump. Some of the ads against her have seized on this and are talking about how she “voted for Trump’s tax cut for the wealthy”.
